Medical implants or prostheses function to replace or augment various structures and tissues in the body. Medical implants include, for example, intervertebral disc replacement devices, spinal fixation systems, facet arthroplasty devices, artificial hips, bone screws, bone plates and rods, prosthetic knee replacements, arterial stents, pacemakers, heart valves, artificial hearts, artificial sphincters, etc. The effectiveness of medical implants sometimes is highly dependent upon the implant's interactions with surrounding tissues. For example, in the case of bone implants, it may be desirable that tissue attachment from adjacent bony structures occur at the bone implant's surface in order to integrate the bone implant with the rest of the skeletal system. Therefore, various surface treatments for medical implants have been proposed in order to stimulate attachment of a wide variety of tissues.
The description herein of problems and disadvantages of known apparatus, methods, and devices is not intended to limit the invention to the exclusion of these known entities. Indeed, embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the known apparatus, methods, and devices without suffering from the disadvantages and problems noted herein.